Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has warned that the lockdown would have to be reimposed if daily COVID-19 cases continue to rise and if the citizenry doesn’t cooperate in terms of disciplined behaviour. He has also warned the people to follow the protocol and thereby avoid the lockdown. Meanwhile, a week’s lockdown has been imposed in the Amravati district.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Shashank Joshi, Member of Maharashtra COVID Task Force and Pradeep Awate, Maharashtra Surveillance Officer spoke at length about the curbs reimposed.

“Doubling of the COVID cases in Mumbai in one week is worrisome and also opening up of local trains and more social gatherings has caused a spike in cases. There was a basic tendency of unmasking; people were not masking appropriately and that led to an exponential double rise,” said Joshi.

Speaking further about the cases, Joshi added, “As far as Mumbai is concerned, I think it is still a yellow signal but if people do not take a step back and reappropriate and recalibrate their behavioural pattern then we would probably head for what we headed exactly a year back.”

On the mutation front, he said, “It’s unlikely that there are any foreign strains. If at all there is a mutant, it could be more transmissible. The suspicion went up only because the test positivity rate of Amravati went up to 50 percent.”

Meanwhile, Awate said, “Seven out of 10 areas with rising COVID cases are from the Vidarbha district. As Dr. Joshi mentioned, basically there is lethargy regarding COVID appropriate behaviour among the masses and it is observed in family functions like weddings or parties.”

For full discussion, watch the video

(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)